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The Albert Street station will have an entrance close to the Botanical Gardens and initial plans show it running under Albert Street for several city blocks to Elizabeth Street.

Ms Bligh said the favoured route would be a "game changer" for rail travel in Brisbane.

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"A station in Albert Street will provide a link directly to the heart of the CBD and make travelling to popular destinations such as the Queen Street Mall, the Botanic Gardens and QUT Gardens Point a lot easier," Ms Bligh said.

"It will be part of a project that will move 120,000 people in the morning peak into and out of the city.

Other new rail stations are planned for Woolloongabba - where the State Government recently sold the Sunmap Centre and Go Print site - and at the new Boggo Road Urban Village site. Commuters will be able to link to the South East and Eastern busways.

An underground station at Boggo Road would let commuters link with the existing Park Road rail station and the Boggo Road and Eastern busways.

The Federal Government is providing $20 million and the Queensland Government $5 million towards the current feasibility study into the underground network.

"We will continue to work with the Federal Government and the private sector to see this vital project delivered by 2016 when our studies show it will be needed," Ms Bligh said.

Private sector funding is necessary for the project.

A draft business case will be ready by the end of this year and by mid-2011, the business case and funding proposals will go to both the state and federal governments.

Construction is expected to take about four years.

The Queensland government has already earmarked $14.2 billion for the inner city rail project, including $8.2 billion for this cross-river rail project.

Representatives of the Valley Chamber of Commerce last week questioned Cross River Rail Project director Luke Franzmann on why the rail line would initially go to Fortitude Valley.